In the Arms of a Pirate (A Sam Steele Romance Book 2) by Michelle Beattie Page B

seeping wound.
    “Ah!” The pirate screamed, cursed. Sweat suddenly beaded his face, dripped off the edge of his crooked nose.
    Chunk leaned forward, putting all his weight into it.
    The pirate’s skin went sallow; his eyes bulged then rolled. Before Aidan could ask the man again, he turned his head and vomited onto the floor. Aidan gave a sharp nod and Chunk lifted his foot off the man. Like a crab, the man scrambled away from Chunk, leaving a smear of blood on the once gleaming floor.
    Again, Aidan knelt at the man’s side. He wasn’t smiling any longer and his smell certainly hadn’t improved. “Roche isn’t here to witness and appreciate your solidarity. Save yourself another bout with Chunk and tell me where Santiago is.” This time Aidan held his knife aloft, turned it side to side, let the light reflect off the serrated blade before positioning it over the man’s spurting wound. “This is nothing compared to the carving knife Chunk favors.”
    “This little thing?” Chunk asked, sliding a mean-looking blade from a sheath. It was still stained red from the battle.
    “All right! Enough!” With a trembling hand the pirate wiped the sweat from his upper lip, the tip of his nose. “Roche was hurt in a recent battle. He sent us here to tell his daughter he wouldn’t be coming for her birthday.”
    Aidan angled the knife toward the man’s wound.
    “I’m not lying!”
    “Perhaps not but neither have you told us where he is.”
    “No wait!” He yelped when Aidan slid the blade over the wound. “I don’t know, and that’s the truth of it. We were to come tell Miss Sarah he would not be coming and then meet him at an arranged location.”
    “And where might this location be?”
    “Tortuga.”
    Aidan settled back on his heels. As a meeting place, it made sense. There was no greater pit of debauchery than Tortuga. However, it did pose a problem. He wanted Roche’s life, but not at the expense of his own. He might have the element of surprise if he attacked Roche in Tortuga but he had no way of knowing how many allies the man had. And, unfortunately, some pirates would likely jump into the battle for the sheer pleasure of it and not care who they shot at. If he was going to take on Roche and live to tell the tale, it couldn’t be there.
    Besides, he already had the perfect place in mind.
    He leaned in close. “Go tell Santiago I have his daughter.”
    The pirate’s eyes bulged. “Have you lost your mind? You take her and he’ll stop at nothing to have your head!”
    Aidan grinned. “He has to find me first.”
    “He’ll be enraged. He’ll be-he’ll be—”
    “More of a madman than he already is?” Aidan supplied.
    “Yes!”
    “It’s time Roche learned what it feels like to have his family threatened.”
    “But—” The pirate looked about. “How do I know she isn’t already dead?”
    “You want assurances? Chunk, fetch the girl.”
    “Aye, Cap’n.”
    “You’re mad, I tell you. You don’t know what Roche can do. You take his daughter and—”
    “Actually, I know exactly what he’s capable of and he has this coming. This and worse. Ah, here’s your proof now.”
    “Where is he? Where’s my father?” Despite Chunk being three times her size, and having a solid grip on her arm, she was pulling him as she hurried into the hall. Her fear-filled eyes skipped over the fallen men. She paled at the sight of blood and what she had to know were dead men, but she remained surprisingly composed. Her gaze latched onto Aidan’s. “I don’t see him. Where is he?”
    Aidan stood. “Not here, your highness. Seems he’s going to miss your birthday this year.”
    “Then he’s alive?” she asked. Fear fell from her rigid body.
    “For the moment.”
    Her scowl told him exactly what she thought of his comment.
    Ignoring it, he addressed the pirate on the floor at his feet. “Tell Roche if he wants his daughter back he needs to think back fifteen years ago to what he did to a boy and